STOCKTON - The Thunder had many opportunities to win before it finally ran out of time Sunday.

Down by three goals in the third period, Stockton cut the deficit to one with 26.5 seconds remaining before losing to the Ontario Reign 4-3 in front of a crowd of 6,124 at Stockton Arena. And while the effort at the end was strong, the Thunder has plenty of reasons to be frustrated.

Stockton went 0 for 9 on the power play, missed a penalty shot and had a goal waved off in the second period. When it cut the lead to 3-2 after scoring two goals in a 43-second span, the Thunder immediately yielded a crucial insurance goal that proved to be the game-winner.

"You give the guys credit. We didn't quit; we kept coming at them. But we weren't as sharp as we needed to be to win," Thunder coach Matt Thomas said. "It was one of those games where it seems it just wasn't going to be ours no matter what we did."

The most glaring problem was the power play. Stockton (30-23-9) had been improving recently on special teams, but its power-play unit was just 1 for 15 in the past two games, both against Ontario. The Thunder beat the Reign 3-2 in a shootout Saturday night in Ontario.

"It's tough to swallow when you get that many opportunities and don't step up even a little bit," Thomas said.

Despite all the obstacles, the Thunder did give itself a shot at the end. Thomas pulled goaltender Tyler Bunz, and Stockton cut the Ontario lead to 4-3 on a goal credited to Tony DeHart, who said his shot definitely ricocheted off the stick of Matt Bergland before going into the Ontario net. There will likely be an official scoring change today.

"We scored, but you can't get on too much of a high because you are still down by one," Bergland said. "We had 25 seconds left, so we were just hoping to get the puck and get everything we could to the net."

Early goals by Everett Sheen and Kevin Estrada gave the Reign (40-15-5) a 2-0 advantage. The Thunder thought it cut the lead in half with 8.1 seconds left in the second period, but Mark Amrboz's goal was disallowed by the officials and he was penalized for goaltender interference.

"I thought the waved-off goal was a bad call," Thomas said. "I thought it was a good goal."

The Reign went up 3-0 in the final period before Stockton jumped back into the game. Max Bosiclair and Brandon Davidson scored on long shots against Chris Carozzi to suddenly shrink Ontario's lead to 3-2. But the Reign went on a 2-on-1 break and Kyle Kraemer scored 17 seconds later.

"After two shifts in a row where you score, it's kind of tough to give one up," Bergland said. "But we pushed back - it was just a little too late."

The Reign improved to 5-2-2 against the Thunder and 18-7-3 on the road.

"(Stockton) has a really skilled lineup," Ontario coach Jason Christie said, "so anytime you can come in here and get a win you have to be happy."